Casa Colombia works toward reopening after fire

An empty parking lot, no customers, dim lights, a head cook and her assistant, and a phone ringing non-stop.This has been the last few months after a fire forced Casa Colombia on East 7th Street to close down until clearance from the city.

However, this has not held down the head chef and associate of Casa Colombia, Emilia Hurtado.

During this time, Hurtado has not been cooking for anyone as they are out of business but still shows up every day to work, especially now that city inspections are coming to the final stages.

“It’s been very desperate for the past four months and a half,” Hurtado said. “Workers have had to leave and look for other jobs and the customers are desperate. They come every day and they keep on calling asking when we are going to open.”

After the fire, Casa Colombia has just been waiting for city inspections before opening. They are planning to open in March.

Hurtado is originally from Del Valle Del Cuaca in Colombia and started cooking at home for friends and family when she was around 18 years old. She then moved to Miami where she lived for nine years and worked cleaning hotels. She moved to Austin 20 years ago to be closer to two sons. She became a cook for Austin Independent School District. Then, in 2001, her sons approached her with the idea of opening a Colombian restaurant, which was the start of Doña Emilia’s and Hurtado’s rise in the cooking industry.

“In a city where high-profile chefs are almost all men who have been to culinary school, it’s a huge accomplishment to stand out as a cook who learned in real-world kitchens,” said Addie Broyles, food writer for the Austin American-Statesman. “And it doesn’t get any more real than a school cafeteria.”

Doña Emilia’s became so successful that it eventually moved downtown from East 7th Street to a larger location on Cesar Chavez. When the decision to move downtown was made, she decided to leave the business she had started with her sons because she had a feeling things were not going to work out.

“The change was too abrupt and we couldn’t do it because Doña Emilia’s was so small and it did not have the capacity to move downtown,” Hurtado said. “From the start of the transition [downtown] they started changing the taste and the food became very different. It wasn’t the same.”

When she left Doña Emilia’s in 2005, she decided to start her own restaurant called Mi Colombia. According to Hurtado, it was a big failure and Mi Colombia closed down in 2007. She was ready to call it quits from the restaurant industry but things did not end that way.

“I don’t give up easily and that has helped me out,” Hurtado said. “I overcame the failure of Mi Colombia because of the associates I have now. They helped me continue with the restaurant because it was already going to close and extended a helping hand.”

Casa Colombia started to see an increase in customers and sales and was looking to expand back in spring 2013, but due to setbacks is now looking to do that in the near future.

“My partners are building a new building but the permits didn’t come out in time so it has taken a while,” Hurtado said. “But I’m positive that this will turn out great now that the customer base has grown a lot.”

Emilia Hurtado cuts banana tree leaves for tamales in the small kitchen. This is in preparation of the reopening of Casa Colombia after the fire in November.

Even after the fire caused them to lose business, the loyalty and of high demand from customers has made it possible for them to continue their business and reopen.

“Emilia’s biggest advantage is exactly what got her to the restaurant in the first place: Her roots in Colombia, her hard work ethic and the fact that she doesn’t take her success for granted,” Broyles said. “American diners have always been in a quest for what’s shiny and new, but one of the biggest trends in recent years is a push toward authenticity, and it doesn’t get any more authentic than that.”

With Casa Colombia close to reopening, Romana Chavez, a line assistant in the kitchen, has come back to work even though business has not started back up out of loyalty to Hurtado. She has been working with Hurtado since 2011 when she started off as an assistance of food preparation.

“I have felt good working here,” Chavez said. “She [Hurtado] had the patience to teach me and here they don’t distinguish whether you are an employee or part of the family, they treat you the same. She is one of the most humble persons I know.”

This story was written for a class assignment in March 2014.